Oregon county expands options for hard-to-recycle items

Deschutes County, Oregon, has expanded options for residents to recycle items that can’t be placed in curbside recycling bins.

© Deschutes County Solid Waste

Deschutes County Solid Waste installed additional recycling containers at Knott Landfill in Bend, Oregon, and the Negus Southwest and Northwest Transfer Stations Dec. 2, which can accept plastic bags, plastic lids from food containers, shredded paper, paper bags, aluminum foil and trays, rigid product buckets and rigid plastic package handles.

“Residents now have additional recycling options for some of those hard to recycle items and can drop them off at our county transfer stations for free,” Solid Waste Director Tim Brownell says. “These changes allow us to keep valuable materials out of our landfills and put them back into use as new materials.”

The Deschutes County curbside recycling program currently accepts aluminum, tin and steel cans; plastic bottles, containers, buckets and rigid plant pots; cardboard; and paper.

This expansion is part of Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act (RMA), which took effect in July and established the first packaging extended producer responsibility in the nation.